Crossposted from Hillbilly Report.
How can we talk about the death and burying in a shallow grave of the public option without mentioning Mike Ross? Yes, this Congressman from Arkansas was the first to blow the trumpet and lead the march among Democrats to commit the heinous murder of real competition in the health insurance marketplace. While Ross has made some good votes in the past, his early salvo against the public option seems to have evolved into a fatal blow.
But why would Mike Ross be such an opponent to the public option?? I mean the people of Arkansas widely support it:
PUBLIC OPTION: Arkansas voters favor a public option 56% to 37%. Independents favor it 57% to 32%. Democrats 83% to 12%.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
And God knows that the people in Arkansas like Americans everywhere desperately need competition to be able to afford health insurance they will be mandated to buy:
In 2006, there were more than 1,435,000 people between the ages of 25 and 64 living in Arkansas. Of those, 23.2 percent were
uninsured. Uninsured Arkansans are sicker and die sooner than their insured counterparts.
http://www.familiesusa.org/...
So why would this "man of the people" vote so ardently against the interests and the will of his voters?? Quite simply because he is for sale to the highest bidder and the people of Arkansas and indeed America were outbid:
In June, as Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., who heads the coalition's task force on health care, publicly expressed the Blue Dogs' misgivings about the Democratic leadership's efforts, the former pharmacy owner was feted at a series of health care industry receptions.
Ross has received nearly $1 million in campaign contributions from the insurance and health care industries over his five-term career.
http://www.kentucky.com/...
But the perks did not even end there. He also recieved a sweet deal on a piece of commercial property by a pharmacy chain:
Ross sold the real estate in Prescott, Ark., to USA Drug for $420,000 -- an eye-popping number for real estate in the tiny train and lumber town about 100 miles southwest of Little Rock.
"You can buy half the town for $420,000," said Adam Guthrie, chairman of the county Board of Equalization and the only licensed real estate appraiser in Prescott.
But the $420,000 was just the beginning of what Ross and his pharmacist wife, Holly, made from the sale of Holly's Health Mart. The owner of USA Drug, Stephen L. LaFrance Sr., also paid the Rosses $500,000 to $1 million for the pharmacy's assets and paid Holly Ross another $100,001 to $250,000 for signing a non-compete agreement. Those numbers, which Ross listed on the financial disclosure reports he files as a member of Congress, bring the total value of the transaction to between $1 million and $1.67 million.
And that's not counting the $2,300 campaign contribution Ross received from LaFrance two weeks after the sale closed.
http://www.alternet.org/...
Now it becomes crystal clear. Our government is bought and paid for and Mike Ross has made out handsomely to kill something working men and women in Arkansas and America desperately needed. Real competition and a chance to buy coverage they could trust in a public plan. He cares not that an overwhelming majority of people in his state and country want that because they simply cannot afford his vote.
The healthcare debate in this country has exposed many for what they really are and our government for what it really is. It is a body of politicians that are bought and paid for by the Corporations to insure that their interests are represented over those of the American people. Our Congress is an auction and men like Mike Ross should be exposed for what they are. Corporate Whores.
See the other two installments of our ongoing "Exposed" series here:
http://www.hillbillyreport.org/...
http://www.hillbillyreport.org/...